Nanoscale spinel LiFeTiO4 for intercalation pseudocapacitive Li(+) storage.

Intercalation pseudocapacitive Li(+) storage has been recognized recently in metal oxide materials, wherein Li(+) intercalation into the lattice is not solid-state diffusion-limited. This may bridge the performance gap between electrochemical capacitors and battery materials. To date, only a few materials with desired crystal structure and with well-defined nanoarchitectures have been found to exhibit such attractive behaviour. Herein, we report for the first time that nanoscale spinel LiFeTiO4 as a cathode material for Li-ion batteries exhibits intercalation pseudocapacitive Li(+) storage behaviour. Nanoscale LiFeTiO4 nanoparticles with native carbon coating were synthesized by a sol-gel route. A fast and large-amount of Li(+) storage (up to 1.6 Li(+) per formula unit over cycling) in the nanoscale LiFeTiO4 host has been achieved without compromising kinetics.